Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Iraq: No WMDs

It's official: no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and we're giving up trying to find them.

Conservative outrage is not expected. Billions of dollars wasted? So what! Hundreds of lives lost? Big fucking deal. Thousands injured? Who gives a shit. At least we captured Saddam Hussein.

What a cluster-fuck. And why isn't the Bush administration being held responsible for the bad intelligence that led to this stupid war? If all of this had happened during the Clinton administration, Bill Clinton would probably be in prison. Conservatives, apparently, hold George W. Bush to a different standard of behavior. Which, I think, is actually no standards at all. In fact, in the Bush administration, incompetence is awarded. Such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to George Tenet, the former head of the CIA. It was his agency's bad intelligence that was used as the bullshit basis to "disarm" Iraq. Remember that? We needed to disarm Iraq before they used their imaginary weapons to arm terrorists or other groups that might be a threat to the United States.

"Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time. If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?"

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahideen" -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."

-- George W. Bush, same speech.

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them...U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them."

So, conservatives, why is it that Bush is not held accountable for what his administration says or does? Can you explain this? I mean, you guys wanted to drive Bill Clinton out of office because he lied about having an affair. Sure, lying to a grand jury is bad. Then again, when it was Oliver North lying to Congress about illegally selling weapons to terrorists, conservatives reacted not with outrage, but instead embraced the man as a hero. I don't get it. The message I come away with is, lying about sex is bad; lying about your role in illegally selling weapons to terrorists, and then destroying evidence of your illegal activity, is okay. Same goes for lying about the existence (or, in this case, non-existence) of stockpiles of weapons at the hands of a rogue nation.

Just think about it for a moment: George W. Bush's lies about Iraq WMDs resulted in the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers; the WMD lies resulted in thousands of soldiers becoming injured or disabled. The WMD lies resulted in the deaths of Iraqi citizens. The WMD lies put the United States into deficit spending, with billions of taxpayer dollars wasted.

Good thing George W. Bush didn't lie about having an affair with an intern.